Amid the growing popularity of the Oculus Rift VR headset among the development community and a small number of gamers, Sony has been working on a rival device for its next-gen console, and it is on track to be revealed in 2014.

Welcome to your first step into the Star Citizen universe! With this early release you will be able to walk around your pledge ship for the very first time. Your Hangar will evolve to become your home base as Star Citizen comes together and we’re excited to allow backers this early look.

It of course supports the Oculus Rift.

Update: Apparantly it does not have Rift support, despite it being rumored before release.

My german is a bit rusty, but i gathered from the horrible translated automatical captions that she was positive to the experience. The Virtualizer looks like it could give the Virtuix Omni a run for its money, providing it comes out at a reasonable price.

Oculus Share (or simply, Share) is the first of many steps we’re taking to build the best virtual reality platform. With Share, you can host Oculus-ready games and experiences that you’ve created, browse and download content from other developers, rate experiences on quality and VR comfort level, provide feedback to devs on what you enjoyed (and what you didn’t), and tip fellow developers for their work in cash, should you feel so inclined.

Seems like a great initiative. There's a lot of games and demos out there, but it's been hard to find them and keep up with them. A centralized platform like Oculus Share will not only help users find Oculus-ready content, but also give developers a way to easily reach users.

The goal is to release the next update worldwide in the coming weeks but we aren't ready to state a specific date yet due to the sheer volume of changes and there is so much dependent on emerging feedback and balancing needs.

Although the Steam Summer Sale is right around the corner, Valve has decided to give their largest franchise a headstart. At 75% off you can get Half-Life 2 and its Episodes for a couple of dollars/euros/whatever currency you're dealin with.

If you already have some of these, the individual titles are also available at 75% off (except HL:Source and HL2:Lost Coast which are only available through the package.

Half-Life 2 is one of the first big games to recieve Rift support, so if you have a Rift or have one coming and you don't own HL you should jump on this offer which expires on Thursday. Hell, even without a Rift, this is a deal you can't pass up.

I was very intrigued when they first revealed Routine last year. Back then all they had was a teaser and an interest in the Oculus Rift. Now Oculus support is confirmed, and the 4 minute trailer looks horrifyingly awesome. I can't wait to shit my pants in space.

Judder, as it relates to displayed images, has no single clear definition; it’s used by cinematographers in a variety of ways. I’m going to use the term here to refer to a combination of smearing and strobing that’s especially pronounced on VR/AR HMDs; why that’s so is the topic of today’s post.

Michael Abrash follows up his last post from a month ago with another insightful article about the hurdles facing VR, this time focusing on "judder"

As I mentioned before, the funding opens up all sorts of doors for Oculus. It helps us hire the best and brightest minds in VR from around the world. It lets us experiment and prototype with more cutting-edge tech. And it allows us to build a badass, consumer VR gaming platform, the likes of which the world has never seen.

Blackspace is an "action/strategy" game by PixelFoundry, which had a failed kickstarter last year. I was a backer, not only because they were planning to support the Oculus Rift, but also because seemed like a very unique and interesting game. (I don't throw my money at anyone who utters the word Oculus in their pitch).
I'm glad to see they are still going strong, and still have a focus on Rift support.

You can read more about their experience implementing Rift support on their blog here.

[…]the difference was immediately apparent. Surface textures could be seen in much higher fidelity, colors were brighter and less muddied and the general detail of the entire environment was greatly improved. For example, when viewing a torch mounted on the wall in the HD headset, you could see the individual flickering of the flame with subtle color striations, whereas the same torch appeared as a pulsing orange blob in the existing dev kit.

[…]based on a few minutes of time with Rifts old and new, the upgrade makes a huge difference. Gone is what CEO Brendan Iribe called "the screen-door effect," and everything comes in much sharper and clearer. We played a game rendered in the newly-integrated Unreal Engine 4, and from the snowflakes outside to the large, horned monster inside, details just pop in a way they never did before. It makes the world feel more immersive, more immediate.

After trying out the new headset, the visual improvements are immediately noticeable. The "screen door" effect so noticeable in the current 720p development kit is significantly reduced, and the lighting effects on display in the Unreal Engine 4 engine look fantastic.

I tried out the new prototype and can confirm that the improved resolution helped bring me into the game. Unfortunately, I did still notice a bit of a black border around individual pixels. Once I was moving and looking around, however, that screen-door effect evaporated slightly.